1915 Read Online Free PDF

coughed in the bowels of the hotel — the old German. And light flickered from under the door of the bar, though itmust have been two in the morning. At the foot of the stairs Billy paused and heard a muffled conversation. “A thousand pounds,” it was Reilly’s voice; and another laughed: “That’s between the four of us.” Then Billy went outside to find Yabbie circling excitedly at the end of her chain.
    â€œWhat is it, girl?”
    The woman in the yellow dress was crouched against the wall of the stable.
    â€œThat’s a mean dog, she wouldn’t let me past.”
    â€œWhat are you doing here anyway?”
    â€œWaitin’.”
    Billy knelt and stroked Yabbie’s muzzle until she quietened, then walked across to where the woman squatted. She was barefooted and slightly built, just a girl. He could see she was terrified.
    â€œWho’re you waitin’ for?” he softly asked.
    â€œA friend.”
    â€œAny friend, eh?”
    â€œYou’ve got me wrong.” She was close enough for Billy to see her eyes defiantly holding his in the cold starlight. “Peter Crane’s in there doing business with Mr Reilly.”
    â€œPeter Crane?” said Billy in a bullying tone. “There ain’t no such person.” But he knew him by sight — a middle aged dairy farmer who lived alone on the flats near the river. The girl was very young, perhaps only fourteen, and pretty enough too. Billy tried to touch her but she drew back.
    â€œCome in the grass with me.”
    â€œYou don’t understand. I’m just waitin’.”
    â€œThen wait along with me,” Billy fiercely told her. He reached out and touched her breast, which was like re-entering the dream of minutes before. Everythingthat had then seemed possible now came to life.
    â€œDon’t do it, boss.” Though she threatened to call out he twisted her arm and forced her down a grassy corridor between two outbuildings. The grass was long, thickly matted as a nest. When they reached a deep pool of shadow against the fence Billy put his arm around her neck, pushed himself hard against her, and forced her down into the icy grass. She gave a breathless whimper as she fell, landing on all fours. Billy dropped with her.
    Now there was her blanket caught up in things, sometimes shifting under an elbow and sometimes not there at all, and a strangely wordless struggle which at first was with the yellow dress, then with bones and hard lumps of earth that gradually acquired flesh, and finally, rising above the cold smell of ashes from a nearby rubbish pile, a soft darkness that seemed to spread across the entire landscape, muffling the frost, the town, the entire continent underneath him as Billy pushed and the girl hissed with hatred through clenched teeth.
    Then it was very cold.
    Billy stood and pulled up his trousers at the same time. He found a half-crown piece folded in his ten shilling note. He wanted to obliterate her.
    â€œ Thanks , mister.” She tossed the coin back.
    Billy looked away and spat. The girl followed him into the open. A window rattled shut, a tin roof thumped in the cold, and far away a catfight erupted and as suddenly ceased.
    â€œYou go home.” But the girl started to move in the direction of the hotel. “Not that way.” He pushed her towards the back lane, but she objected.
    â€œMy place is through there.”
    â€œNot tonight it ain’t.” Again he pushed her and again she stepped sullenly forward.
    So he punched her on the mouth.
    â€œDo what I say.”
    A smudge of blood widened on her lower lip. She sat down in a heap and lowered her head to the ground. Yabbie, who all this time had been quiet, jangled her chain and Billy walked over to pat her. When he looked up, the girl was trotting down the drive and out the back gate.
    Billy climbed the stairs carrying his boots. When he reached the first landing the door of the bar